All For One
by Laura the infamous B
Summary: A tag to Grey Areas


** All for One**   
A tag to Grey Areas   
by: Laura Boeff   


"Alex?"   
Fidget Wilson looked worriedly over to her best friend and team captain Alex Mann. The   
extreme athlete had been strangely silent all evening. Not that Alex was a talker, that was   
Fidget's job, but tonight he was almost a specter.   
The petite red-head came in, and without invitation, sat beside Alex on the lounges   
couch. Alex threw her an annoyed look, but Fidget ignored that. They were a team. Family.   
Really the only family Fidget felt she had, and if one member was hurting, then they all were.   
Just the job of handling those hurts generally fell to Grinder. Not that he minded. He liked   
helping people, but right now he was sort of repairing the damage Alex had wrecked to the front   
console when he had hunted for the bomb.   
The large man beside her still hadn't said anything, starring off at the far wall as if it held   
the answers.   
"Penny for your thoughts?" she asked. There was no response and Fidget frowned   
slightly. She rustled around her pocket and pulled out all the loose change. Then counted it.   
"Thirty seven cents for your thoughts?" she offered brightly to her grim companion. Alex   
looked over at the proffered change, then flashed her look that was a cross between amusement   
and annoyance.   
"Hey, I get that look all the time from Rikki too," Fidget said cheerfully. This comment   
earned her an eyeroll.   
"What's going on up there?" she went on, nodding to Alex's head. The blue eyes flashed   
with new emotions.... Fear, dread. Alex sighed and turned away and Fidget felt her heart   
constrict. Alex could get a bit broody at times, but never like this.   
"I don't know anymore, Fidget," he said in all but a whisper. "What's happening to me?"   
That was the question of the hour. Grey had given them a bunch of cryptic double talk   
before heading off to hide from Dr. X and his cronies. Man, what she wouldn't give to have that   
answer. The AMP factor. The strange... power, that had suddenly blossomed in Alex's thick skull   
during a moment of fear and danger. They had a name for the ability, and that was about it.   
"Well, you just let me have five minutes alone with Grey in a locked closet and I'm sure I   
could get you the answer," Fidget chuckled with mock ferocity, the humor falling flat as Alex   
glanced at her, then turned away again. Man... Alex wasn't looking for someone to lighten things   
up, he was looking for serious answers, and here she was making bad jokes. Now she saw why   
Grinder was better at these heart to heart's. He seemed to see what people really needed.   
"I wish I knew the answers, Alex, I really do," she said more softly.   
Alex heaved a sigh. "Grey does. But.. but I just don't know if I can trust him.. or anyone with   
this."   
"Yea, he sort of creeps me out too," Fidget admitted, then tried to catch Alex's gaze.   
"How are you doing?" she asked. No one had really ever asked that. How Alex was   
'feeling'. It was too strange, bizarre what was going on and Fidget felt a pang of guilt. This was   
Alex that this power had happened to -friend, team mate and one damn nice guy- and all they   
could think was how eerie it was.   
"I feel... I feel like I've stepped into another dimension. Mad scientists, weird powers and   
shadowy government agents all after me. It's like a bad movie," Alex muttered, shaking his head.   
"Maybe we should keep a journal then sell the rights," Fidget piped thoughtfully. "Bet it'd   
be a box office hit."   
Alex let out a snort and cocked an eyebrow at her. "Knowing my luck right now it would   
end up being a Saturday morning cartoon."   
Fidget laughed. This was more like the Alex she knew and loved.   
"Oh.. there's a scary thought. I understand the b-movie feeling. Kind of reminds me of   
the last blind date I went on."   
"When did you go on a blind date?" Alex blinked in surprise at her.   
"About two months ago and you'd better not breath a word to anyone. Jane at the   
Master's studio had this favorite cousin coming into town to visit and I sort of agreed to kind of   
meet him."   
"You went on a date?" There was no missing the playfully incredulous note in Alex's   
voice.   
"It has been known to happen," Fidget snorted.   
"So...?"   
Fidget sighed. "Soo.. it was my worse nightmare come true. It was like going out on a   
date with Rikki. The guy was soo serious and straight laced you just knew he was born to be an   
accountant."   
Alex chuckled and shook his head. "Guess I'm not the only one with problems then if   
you're dating an accountant."   
"I am not dating him! Once. I only went out with him once and in a moment of weakness!"   
Fidget argued passionately, feeling a world better at the smile Alex flashed her. He was such a   
tease. But the smile became melancholy as silence fell between them, and even her own horrors   
in dating could only make a temporary dent in Alex's problems.   
"What's it like?" she asked suddenly. Fidget had wanted to ask before, but sort of shied   
away from the question given how obviously uncomfortable Alex was about the ability.   
"To AMP?" Alex shivered. "I.. I don't know if I can explain it. It seems like for a moment   
the world stops and you see everything. The numbers, they touch everything, are everywhere,   
laying out the course for me to take and I take it. I don't even think about it. I just *do* it."   
The dark haired man shook his head.   
"What am I, Fidget? What am I?"   
Fidget's brow arched up in confusion. That question had not only come out of the blue,   
she wasn't even sure what Alex was getting at.   
"Come again?"   
Alex looked up at her, dismay deep in the clear blue eyes.   
"Am I human?" he asked softly.   
Whoa! What the..?   
"Well... being you're a guy, I think that instantly defines you as a subclass of human," she said   
without thought.   
Alex just shook his head. "Grey said that the project started in high school. All this time   
he was watching me, following me... I.. I was part of an experiment all this time and didn't have   
the slightest idea. How.. how did they change me to bring this AMP factor out? Did the   
experiment start in high school, or before that? Before I was even born!?" Frustration sang in his   
words as Alex threw his hands up in the air.   
Fidget looked at her own hands for a moment. Yea, those were kind of creepy questions   
to have to ask yourself. "That is sort of deep... Grey wouldn't tell you?"   
"We didn't exactly have a chance to chat over coffee," Alex muttered darkly.   
Fidget nodded. Yea, the mean, green, viper bitch that had way to much affinity for   
explosives. She bit her lip and wished Grinder would walk through the door to help cheer Alex   
up. Her friend was deep in the dumps.   
"Hey, I don't have the answer to those questions, Alex, but I can tell you it doesn't matter   
to us," she offered.   
Alex let out a snort.   
"Oh yea? It doesn't freak you out, just a little, that I can do this?"   
Fidget thought about it. "Humm... not a freak out I guess. It's.. it's wild you can do it." She   
nudged playfully against him. "But it doesn't scare me, or any of the guys if that's what you're   
thinking. It's weird, and wild, and kind of cool you can do this. And hey, it saved my butt! Did I   
say thanks for that? Thanks for that," she babbled cheerfully.   
"Fidget..." Alex sighed.   
"Alex," she countered. "Look, it doesn't seem like this Grey guy is going away anytime   
soon so I'm sure you'll get your answers. That is, if you don't kill the guy first for being so   
secretive. And hey, that AMP thing your head is a good thing. As to X... Well..." Fidget shrugged,   
then smiled. "But whatever you face, you'll have us right there with you. Don't forget that, okay?   
We're a team! We're your team, Alex, no matter how good you get at doing the math."   
Awkwardly, Fidget reached out and squeezed Alex's arm. "We hang together, no matter   
what."   
"And fall together?"   
"Hey, it's part of the job description," Fidget laughed, ignoring the darker connotations   
behind those words. "I'll plummet 1,000 feet to the earth with you anytime, big guy!"   
Alex looked at her for a moment, then smiled slightly and relaxed for the first time since   
she'd walked in.   
"Thanks Fidg, thanks," he said softly. "That means alot to me. You been taking lessons   
from Grinder?"   
Fidget shrugged. "Hey, he's not as dumb as he looks."   
Alex laughed and Fidget knew it made her feel a world better to hear that sound.   
"I'll remember not to mention that to him," Alex said dryly.   
Fidget grinned. "Soo.. Do I have to keep talking to you all serious, or are you going to be   
okay now?   
"I think the patient is going to survive, doctor," Alex muttered sarcastically around his   
smile.   
"Great! Because I could really use some help going over the next stunts visual layouts. If   
you're up to it?" she said, bouncing to her feet. Alex hauled himself off the couch alongside her.   
"I'm sure I can spare a few minutes," he said simply.   
"Oh, I feel so honored," Fidget laughed, dancing out of range of Alex's playful swipe.   
Maybe she wasn't so bad at this touchy feely stuff afterall, Fidget thought to herself as they left   
the lounge, glancing up to the chuckling Alex.   
Nope, not bad at all.   
  
  



End file.
